26 November 2005

RSF call for boycott of Irish Ferries

Republican Sinn Fein are calling for a boycott of Irish Ferries as we believe this is the most effective way people can show support and solidarity to the workers of Irish Ferries.

These workers are currently locked in a dispute which goes to the root of what a Trade Union Movement is about. This dispute is a defining moment for the Irish Trade Union Movement; the support of IBEC for Irish Ferries is ominous and has echoes of William Martin Murphy's Employer's Federation attempt, during the 1913 lockout, to beat into submission ordinary working men and women. What is happening now is an attempt to roll back the hard fought for rights and working conditions won by Irish workers in the years since 1913.

This is a challenge that must be met head on. The stakes are high; a victory for Irish Ferries would give the green light for wholesale exploitation. What we are witnessing is the playing out of the globalisation agenda, a world where the most vulnerable, in this case migrant workers, are exploited and used to set one section of the working class against the other. This is not simply an attack on the workers of Irish Ferries but is an attack on the pay, conditions and working time of every worker in Ireland. Republican Sinn Fein calls on every Irish working person to come out in support of the Irish Ferries' workers day of action' on Friday next, December 2.